Providing contemporaneous maps to a user at a non-GPS enabled mobile device

• US 8,340,897 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meizu Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Joshi, Parag Mulendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Assistant Examiner(s): FIGUEROA, JAIME
• Application Number:
  US11/888,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20090037099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,974 Days
• Field of Search: 701/208, 701/209, 701/409, 701/533, 455/436, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/457
• US Class Current: 701/409
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location

Abstract

An exemplary method for providing contemporaneous maps to a user at a non-GPS enabled mobile device comprises obtaining a request from the mobile device, decoding the request to obtain multimedia data, analyzing the multimedia data to obtain location information, accessing a map database using the location information, generating a map image based on data from the map database, generating a response including the map image, and sending the response to the mobile device to enable a display of the map image at the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

analyzing, via a processor, multimedia data and user entered additional data received in a location request message at a map server from a mobile device to estimate a location of the mobile device, the additional data being different from the multimedia data and including location information related to the multimedia data, the multimedia data and the additional data not including global positioning system data;

generating a map image at the map server based on the location; and

sending the map image from the map server to the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia data includes image data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing the multimedia data includes applying optical character recognition to the image data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia data includes audio data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein analyzing the multimedia data includes applying speech recognition to the audio data to estimate the location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the map image is encoded in accordance with a mobile communication standard.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating navigational directions at the map server based on the multimedia data; and

sending the navigational directions from the map server to the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the image data represents a street sign.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the image data represents an address.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing the multimedia data includes applying optical character recognition to the image data to extract at least one of a street name or a street number.

19. The method of claim 4, wherein the audio data represents a spoken address.

8. A map server comprising:

one or more processors implementing a location recognition module to analyze multimedia data received in a location request from a mobile device via a communication network to determine different first and second locations represented by the multimedia data, the multimedia data not including global positioning system data;

a local map creator to;

generate a map image based on the first and second locations; and

generate navigational directions for navigating between the first and second locations determined from the multimedia data, the navigational directions to be sent to the mobile device via the communication network, the first and second locations being different from a current location of the mobile device; and

a response generator to send the map image to the mobile device via the communication network.

9. The map server of claim 8, wherein the multimedia data includes image data.

10. The map server of claim 9, wherein the location recognition module is to apply optical character recognition to the image data to determine the location.

11. The map server of claim 8, wherein the multimedia data includes audio data.

12. The map server of claim 11, wherein the location recognition module is to apply speech recognition to the audio data to determine the location.

13. A tangible computer-readable storage medium storing logic instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform a method comprising:

analyzing multimedia data and user entered additional data received in a location request message from a mobile device via a communication network to estimate a location of the mobile device, the additional data being different from the multimedia data and including location information related to the multimedia data, the multimedia data and the additional data not including global positioning system data;

generating a map image based on the location; and

sending the map image to the mobile device via the communication network.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the multimedia data includes image data.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the multimedia data includes audio data.